Abstract
The scholarship on law and literature has focused almost exclusively on fiction and drama, to the exclusion of nondramatic poetry. Yet a number of major English-language poets have produced work focusing on legal themes. This essay analyzes depictions of lawyers in the work of poets ranging from Geoffrey Chaucer to the contemporary American writer Martin Espada. It distinguishes “good lawyer” poems from “bad lawyer” poems, noting variations within each type. Because of the relatively stable nature of the legal profession in the common-law countries, the poetry on this subject does not so much develop as circle around a common set of themes, allowing poets of different periods to speak to each other as virtual contemporaries.
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